E Is for Eating

I just got a good internet connection at home last week, thus the sudden flood of blog posts...

I never tried the tasty flies which are a Karamojong delicacy, never eaten grasshoppers. But Karamoja has expanded my taste in other ways. In 2004, I ate at an Indian restaurant for the first time (in Mbale). I love Indian food now. (Unfortunately, no Indian restaurants here. It's up to me to cook.) I almost got to try Ethopian food in Kampala, too. I drank Italian beer for the first time in Kampala, though. And at the Tricaricos' house, I tried veal for the first time. It was very good; I'm almost over my horror at eating baby calf now. And at Martha's house, I learned to make bread...and discover it was pretty fun.

I did try more traditional foods, though. The clinic staff and construction guys get rice and beans (and usually cabbage and occasionally matoke) every day for lunch. This has led to some quarreling because where formerly all they would have expected for lunch is perhaps some posho, now they would like a bit extra oil in their beans, please, and more salt, and... But such is human nature. Anyway, except when I was sick, I always really liked the rice and beans and especially the cabbage. Joyce once showed me how to cook the cabbage, but my attempt to cook it at home failed to duplicate it. Anyway, I've been assured that if I ate rice and beans every day for longer than a month or two, I would get tired of them. (But I'm naturaly inclined to like them; red beans and rice used to be a treat when I lived in Louisiana.)

I also tried posho, at this restaurant in Nakapiripirit. And it was good. It was legendary in my family because my dad had told me about it - a kind of porridge without much flavor. But cooked this way, it's somehow tasty. Basically smooth polenta with a lot of salt, good for dipping in beans.

All this is inspiring me to cook rice and beans, but it probably just won't taste the same....